By now Apple's iTunes Music Store should be seeing some real competition, too. All some enterprising company would have to do would be to develop a site with much the same content, add the ability to use it on a host of players that don't happen to be iPodsand offer better prices. That's happened, but it doesn't seem to be quite enoughin part because of subpar players, in part because of Microsoft's software failings.

The big advantage of the major non-iPod sites is the availability of to-go subscription deals for filling up portable players. The concept is the same among the three big services: As long as you pay a monthly fee (Yahoo
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) Music charges $10 if you pay a year in advance, $12 otherwise; Rhapsody and Napster
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) $15 each), you get unlimited access to a library of more than 1.5 million titles.

You can play your music on several computers and portable devices, which generally need to connect to the service once a month to authorize themselves. Drop your subscription and the music dies, though it usually revives once you pay up. Subscriptions that let you use a computer but not a music player are even cheaper. But the Windows Media digital rights management system can at times be wildly frustrating, displaying messages about acquiring license that no user should have to see.

Still, being able to listen to a month's worth of anything that suits your fancy for the price that iTunes charges for an album is compelling, and the selection is broad. Of the top ten albums at iTunes when I tested, all but one were available at all three Windows Media services. For those who want to steep themselves in music, it's miraculous: You can stuff your player with dozens of Duke Ellington or Arthur Rubinstein or Bob Dylan albums and not go broke.

The services offer similar but not identical catalogs. With all of them the vast majority of music is available on the unlimited download plans, but some titles are limited to streaming or à la carte purchase. The biggest differences are in the ways they present their material and let you manage your device and in separate features that let you do things like create personal Internet radio stations.

Yahoo, for example, pays almost no attention to classical music, filing it under easy listening. Plenty of classical titles are there, but searching for them is maddening. Napster and Rhapsody have their own quirks in the way they present the material. None offers the ease of use or the sleek presentation of iTunes. But iTunes doesn't offer subscriptions.

Since all of these services offer free trials, I'd start with the cheap one, Yahoo, and then move to another if you're not satisfied. Or you might want to wait for mtv Networks' new Urge site, which is expected to go live before summer. And if you want to use it with a portable player, make sure you get a Plays for Sure Subscription certified model. That's what passes for simplicity in the realm where iThings need not apply.

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